Ezekiel 2:6

2:6 But you, son of man, do not fear them, and do not fear their words – even though briers ¹  and thorns ²  surround you and you live among scorpions – do not fear their words and do not be terrified of the looks they give you, ³  for they are a rebellious house!

Isaiah 41:10

41:10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!

Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! ⁴ 

I strengthen you –

yes, I help you –

yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand! ⁵ 

Isaiah 41:14

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ⁶ 

men of ⁷  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ⁸  the Holy One of Israel. ⁹ 

Isaiah 50:7

50:7 But the sovereign Lord helps me,

so I am not humiliated.

For that reason I am steadfastly resolved; ¹⁰ 

I know I will not be put to shame.

Jeremiah 1:8

1:8 Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, ¹¹  for I will be with you to protect ¹²  you,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 1:17

1:17 “But you, Jeremiah, ¹³  get yourself ready! ¹⁴  Go and tell these people everything I instruct you to say. Do not be terrified of them, or I will give you good reason to be terrified of them. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 17:18

17:18 May those who persecute me be disgraced.

Do not let me be disgraced.

May they be dismayed.

Do not let me be dismayed.

Bring days of disaster on them.

Bring on them the destruction they deserve.” ¹⁶ 

Micah 3:8

3:8 But I ¹⁷  am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives,

and have a strong commitment to justice. ¹⁸ 

This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion,

and Israel with its sin. ¹⁹ 

Micah 3:1

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ²⁰  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²¹  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ²² 

Micah 2:3

2:3 Therefore the Lord says this: “Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! ²³ 

It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. ²⁴ 

You will no longer ²⁵  walk proudly,

for it will be a time of catastrophe.

Micah 2:2

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ²⁶ 

They defraud people of their homes, ²⁷ 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ²⁸ 

Micah 2:6

2:6 ‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ²⁹ 

‘These prophets should not preach of such things;

we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ³⁰ 

[2:6]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

[2:6]  ² tn The Hebrew term is found elsewhere in the OT only in Ezek 28:24.

[2:6]  ³ tn Heb “of their faces.”

[41:10]  ⁴ tn According to BDB (1043 s.v. שָׁעָה), the verb תִּשְׁתָּע (tishta’) in the second line of the poetic couplet is a Hitpael form from the root שָׁעָה (sha’ah, “gaze,” with metathesis of the stem prefix and the first root letter). Taking the Hitpael as iterative, one may then translate “do not anxiously look about.” However, the alleged Hitpael form of שָׁעָה (sha’ah) only occurs here and in verse 23. HALOT 1671 s.v. שׁתע proposes that the verb is instead a Qal form from the root שׁתע (“fear”) which is attested in cognate Semitic languages, including Ugaritic (discovered after the publishing of BDB), suggests the existence of this root. The poetic structure of v. 10 also supports the proposal, for the form in question is in synonymous parallelism to יָרֵא (yare’, “fear”).

[41:10]  ⁵ tn The “right hand” is a symbol of the Lord’s power to deliver (Exod 15:6, 12) and protect (Ps 63:9 HT [63:8 ET]). Here צֶדֶק (tsedeq) has its well-attested nuance of “vindicated righteousness,” i.e., “victory, deliverance” (see 45:8; 51:5, and BDB 841-42 s.v.).

[41:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ⁷ tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[50:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Therefore I set my face like flint.”

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “be afraid of them.” The antecedent is the “whomever” in v. 7.

[1:8]  ¹² tn Heb “rescue.”

[1:17]  ¹³ tn The name “Jeremiah” is not in the text. The use of the personal pronoun followed by the proper name is an attempt to reflect the correlative emphasis between Jeremiah’s responsibility noted here and the Lord’s promise noted in the next verse. The emphasis in the Hebrew text is marked by the presence of the subject pronouns at the beginning of each of the two verses.

[1:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “gird up your loins.” For the literal use of this idiom to refer to preparation for action see 2 Kgs 4:29; 9:1. For the idiomatic use to refer to spiritual and emotional preparation as here, see Job 38:3, 40:7, and 1 Pet 1:13 in the NT.

[1:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I will make you terrified in front of them.” There is a play on words here involving two different forms of the same Hebrew verb and two different but related prepositional phrases, “from before/of,” a preposition introducing the object of a verb of fearing, and “before, in front of,” a preposition introducing a spatial location.

[17:18]  ¹⁶ tn Or “complete destruction.” See the translator’s note on 16:18.

[3:8]  ¹⁷ sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.

[3:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord, and justice and strength.” The appositional phrase “the Spirit of the Lord” explains the source of the prophet’s power. The phrase “justice and strength” is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophet’s strong sense of justice.

[3:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ²² tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[2:3]  ²³ tn Heb “clan” or “extended family.”

[2:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “from which you will not remove your neck.” The words “It will be like a yoke” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:3]  ²⁵ tn Or “you will not.”

[2:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[2:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “‘Do not foam at the mouth,’ they foam at the mouth.” The verb נָטַף (nataf) means “to drip.” When used of speech it probably has the nuance “to drivel, to foam at the mouth” (HALOT 694 s.v. נטף). The sinful people tell the Lord’s prophets not to “foam at the mouth,” which probably refers in a derogatory way to their impassioned style of delivery. But the Lord (who is probably still speaking here, see v. 3) sarcastically refers to their impassioned exhortation as “foaming at the mouth.”

[2:6]  ³⁰ tc If one follows the MT as it stands, it would appear that the Lord here condemns the people for their “foaming at the mouth” and then announces that judgment is inevitable. The present translation assumes that this is a continuation of the quotation of what the people say. In this case the subject of “foam at the mouth” is the Lord’s prophets. In the second line יִסַּג (yissag, a Niphal imperfect from סוּג, sug, “to remove”) is emended to יַסִּגֵנוּ (yassigenu; a Hiphil imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג, nasag/nasag, “to reach; to overtake”).